The Black Fox
by brukleflesche
Summary: A kitsune has been watching the human girl Kagome for quite some time now, and he decides to also become a human and help heal her breaking heart. Kagome might just surprise this kitsune, however...


          The girl, Kagome, looks sad as she sits on the steps of her back porch. Her elbows rest on her bent knees and her hands form a basket for her chin. Her pink lips are down-turned and her brown eyes are dull yet shiny at the same time, probably from unshed tears.

          I have been watching her for years. Every single time she comes to the back porch, her designated spot for mulling over whatever situation in her life, my eyes are on her. She never seems to catch sight of me, but she is always within my sight whenever she comes out here.

          I observe silently as her lower lip trembles and she slides her hands up to cover her face as she hunches over and cries. Her sobs are not really sobs at all, but more like whines. The wails are high-pitched and birdlike, not unlike a sound a member of my species might create.

          At this moment, I want to comfort her, but how can I as I am? My arms are not made for enveloping a distressed person in a warm embrace, nor are my hands made to wipe away tears. In fact, they are not hands at all, but paws. Because, after all, I am not human.

          I am a fox.

THE BLACK FOX 

©2002 by Kei

          "Were it that humans weren't cursed with these foolish emotions," Kagome laments, uncovering her face and allowing me a full view of what her tears have caused to happen to her lovely face. Her crystalline eyes are red, and rimmed by the same color; her cheeks are wet and pink. Even from my position I can smell the salt of the droplets leaking from her eyes.

          "And yet, I must be the foolish one, for I allowed myself to fall into this curse," she whispers, and her comment confuses me to a degree. She has _allowed_ herself to have these emotions? She is a human, and as such she has no control over these sorts of reactions; is that not right? I think that her strange remark stems from the emotional distress she is suffering; certainly what she says it not the product of a rational mind.

          "Inu-Yasha," she murmurs, and my ears perk forward at the name, but then they immediately flatten back again my skull, for I have no love or even lukewarm affection for _that_ individual.

          "Inu-Yasha," she says again, and though there is a growl building in my throat, I listen attentively as she continues:

          "All this time I thought it was this way between us because you needed me, and now I find—now I find—now I find that _I_ am the one who needs _you!"_

          With that, she bursts into another torrential flurry of tears. I feel an ache deep within me to comfort her somehow, and the dull throbbing converts into an intense frustration because, in my form, I cannot do one single thing for her. Inari-sama[1], I wish that I were so shaped that I could touch her and offer her solace in the circle of my warm embrace!

          My frustration engenders a renewal of my deep-seated fury and hatred directed at the one named Inu-Yasha, a human boy I have often seen Kagome with. Whenever she is with him, her eyes are completely filled with light, and yet that obtuse mooncalf remains forever oblivious! He should consider himself smiled upon by the gods to be so fortunate as to have an angel like Kagome in his unworthy company!

          'Kagome,' I say to her silently, 'what has that bastard done to you? What unforgivable transgression has he committed against you that you should grieve so? Why is it that you bemoan him, my sweet one?'

          There is a creak as the backdoor opens and one of the family members permits the pet cat, named Buyo, to exit the white structure and pad over to his mourning mistress. My hackles go up at the unwelcome presence, but the fat feline seems not to notice me as he rubs up against Kagome's leg and purrs invitingly, hoping to be lifted into her lap and stroked by her soft, delicate hands.

          "Oh Buyo," Kagome sniffles, gently raising him to rest in her lap and holding him close to her. His purring increases in volume as he wallows in the attention being paid him. He is unaware that Kagome has buried her face in his thick multicolored fur and is now mumbling the events leading up to her breakdown into the silken hair. I ever so slowly creep forward to hear better and focus completely on the muffled words.

          "…going to college, Buyo! In England, no less! He possesses not a whit of care or concern about my post-high school affairs. He has not enquired once as to where I may be furthering my education, for he is far too engrossed in planning out every single blasted detail of his journey. He is not at all worried about the great distance this will place between us," she tells the unwitting tom. I know she must be speaking of Inu-Yasha, and I cannot thwart the enraged growl that erupts from between my jaws that long to clamp down on Inu-Yasha's weak human flesh and rip out his gullet. Fortunately, neither Kagome nor Buyo hears me.

          "Today I was bludgeoned with the reality that I am completely and utterly taken for granted by Inu-Yasha," Kagome says despondently. "He will never view me as anything more than a simple friend and now, should I voice my apprehensions, an annoying anchor that serves no purpose other than to prevent him from following his dreams and attaining his aspirations.

          "I am barely able to abide this misery, Buyo. If Inu-Yasha's intentions do not change, if he flies away to a far-off country, I know for certain that I will return whence I came when he was young and still needed a companion to stand by him always and encourage him and provide him with a source from which to draw strength and consolation.

          "He no longer has necessity of me, and thus I will revert back to what I once was, and everything will be gone. Even you will be gone, Buyo," she informs her pet, though he doesn't seem to be concerned about this fact.

          I ponder feverishly on the implications of Kagome's statement. What does she mean by "everything will be gone," as though the world exists or does not at her whim? And the talk of reverting back to what she once was confounds me to no end. I have never known Kagome to be anything other than what she sits angelically before me as now, and I cannot contrive of what else she could possibly be.

          It does come to my mind that Kagome was six years of age when I first laid eyes on her, and I was nearly two hundred years old, which is still quite young in the time flux of my kind. As I have been a spectator on her life, I feel a particular kinship with her, as though we have grown up together, though twelve years for a fox such as me is not an exceptionally long time. Yet I still have the sense that we have shared our lives, through every joy and every ordeal, and I have always been there for her, despite her ignorance of this.

          But because she was already six years into her life when I first came upon her, perhaps she could have been a wholly different person in the previous time. Though human children at six are not mature to any extent, and I do not really see how Kagome could have been thoroughly dissimilar to what she is now, I know that she is a lovely anomaly to any limitations of humanity. So the idea of her being very unlike what she is now even at the age of five is not incongruous to me.

          The backdoor squeaks open again and Kagome's younger brother Sôta pokes his head out. "Inu-Yasha's here to see you, Kagome."

          "Thank you, Sôta," she replies, and I admire her ability to keep a steady voice and sense of politeness in light of the tragedy she feels has befallen her. "I'll be there in a moment."

          The door closes and Kagome places Buyo on the porch before standing up on shaky legs and rapidly drying her tears with her sleeve. She sniffs, rubs her eyes, and rakes her fingers through her hair for the sake of appearances before moving to go inside and greet her backstabbing friend.

          Just as she is reaching for the doorknob, however, a young man with a confident gait and long ebony hair emerges from around the corner of the house. His amethyst eyes glitter in the afternoon sunlight as he says, "Hey, Kagome."

          She whirls around, startled, and gapes at him for a split-second before regaining her composure and returning the salutation. Inu-Yasha steps up onto the porch and boorishly opts to recline on the chaise longue, leaving Kagome with the matching folding chair situated about a meter away from Inu-Yasha's perch. She slowly lowers herself into it, careful to keep her face an expressionless mask.

          "To what do I owe the pleasure, Inu-Yasha?" Kagome ventures quietly, her eyes downcast to her hands lying motionless upon her thighs. I am glaring at Inu-Yasha with an enmity I didn't know was possible. If looks could kill, he would have been worm fodder two years gone.

          "Earlier today, when I was talking about college and all that, you were practically silent, like it made you sad. What's wrong, Kagome?" he asked, and I know Kagome is as shocked as I am at his display of worry for her, heartless bastard that he is.

          "I thank you most sincerely for your concern, but it's nothing, really," she lies, and I can smell the tears behind her eyes. "I suppose it's that the whole idea of growing up and leaving home is weighing heavily on my mind. I'm terribly sorry if I caused you to fret for me."

          '_He_ is the one who should be apologizing to _you_, beautiful one,' I answer vehemently, though of course she does not hear me.

          "Change is frightening to me, Inu-Yasha. I'm just glad that you do not fear the first turning of the leaves in autumn that we have ever been apart, the first time you have ever not lived at your childhood home," Kagome says to him, and his expression is thoughtful.

          "I never really saw it in that light," he mutters, and I am more than a bit pleased to hear some notes of guilt in his voice. "You don't feel like you're being abandoned or anything, do you, Kagome?"

          "Oh, of course not!" she laughs lightheartedly, but I hear the slight break in her voice that goes totally over that dog's head. "I'm overjoyed that you've been accepted to such a prestigious university! Oh, Inu-Yasha, you have such a bright future ahead of you, and there is no one happier of this than I am!"

          "You're the best, Kagome," he grins, standing up to hug her quickly.

          "I know," she responds softly. "I promised to be."

          "Ha ha, yeah, I remember that!" Inu-Yasha exclaims. "God, we were what? Five? No, six. Twelve years we've been friends, Kagome. And I dunno if I've ever told you this, but there isn't one day that goes by that I don't think of how grateful I am that you were sent to me at that time in my life."

          "Nobody sent me, Inu-Yasha," Kagome contradicts him diffidently. "I saw that you needed someone, and I decided to be that someone for you."

          He smiles brightly at her, and I can see the slight twitching at the corner of her eye that tells me her resolve will absolutely crumble if this discourse does not end soon.

          "Well, thanks for being that someone for me, Kagome. You helped me so much, letting me do my own thing but still being there when I needed you, until I learned to be independent," he stated.

          "Until you didn't need me anymore," she adds, her voice a shadow of a whisper.

          "Right!"

          At his unwavering concurrence, Kagome's lips part in wordless heartbreak, and she spins around so that her back is to the beast. Her quivering shoulders escape his notice, but not mine. I can hardly stand to see her this way. That heartrending look laid upon her pretty face nearly causes my own heart to break.

          "I need to help my mother prepare dinner now, Inu-Yasha. Until tomorrow," she says hurriedly before dashing inside with Buyo hot on her heels. The dog monster shrugs thoughtlessly and strolls off, and I could not be gladder to see him go.

          Now that Kagome has returned inside, I scamper off through the underbrush, back to the den where I live with my parents. They are out hunting at this time of the evening, and I am privately thrilled to be alone. I rush over to a bush near the den and dig furiously beneath it until I unearth a human skull that I happened to stumble across a few months ago. Being what I am, I have been taught the ritual I must perform in order to become humanoid, and I've been saving the ivory cranial shell for just this purpose[2].

          Glancing around to make sure no one else is about, I use my short paws and a bit of ingenuity to position the skull on my head. I shove it up against a tree trunk with my nose and burrow under it a bit so that it lies atop my head, rather like a morbid hat. With very deliberate movements, I sit back on my haunches and stay very still. I close my eyes and begin a chant in my mind.

          'Inari-sama, grant me the form which I desire. Grant unto me the power to take a human shape. Inari-sama, grant me the form which I desire…'

          I continue with the litany until I am no longer reciting it mentally but with very human lips. I jump up from my seat on the forest floor and gaze down in wonderment at my metamorphosed body. I have long limbs and fair skin; I walk upright on two legs; I have five digits on my extremities and hands that grasp. I have vocal chords with which to verbally communicate my thoughts and feelings. All of my senses are dimmed, but this form is more than worth it.

          Fleet-footed even as a human, I run to the nearby lake from which we drink vital water and hunt fish with iridescent scales. I kneel down to glimpse my transformed self, and I gasp when my reflection on the still water comes within my sight. I lift my right hand and lightly finger my mop of ginger hair and my facial features. My lips are pink and thin, and my eyes are a mesmerizing shade of green not unlike the emerald hue of leaves on the vernal equinox.

          "Inari-sama, even you with your divine and infinite wisdom and intelligence cannot fathom the depths of my eternal gratitude to you…" I whisper, reaching out my fingers until they breach the sparkling water's surface and cause my image to ripple before me. Then I realize that I am naked, and I fast utilize my kitsune magic to clothe myself in a green shirt that enhances the color my eyes and a pair of khaki pants that compliments the top, plus some comfortable sneakers not unlike the ones I have seen Inu-Yasha wear. Not that I would willfully choose to dress like him, but he is the only example I have to go by.

          Now I must fashion a human dwelling here in the woods, and after that I will insinuate myself into Kagome's life before Inu-Yasha's impending departure.

          Again I lower my eyelids, and I envision a two-story white rock house with blue shingling and a matching blue door. When I open my eyes, there it sits before me on the lakeshore, and I laugh aloud in immense pleasure. I walk over and step inside, and am greeted by a completely furnished living space. There is a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms and another bath are upstairs. There is even a television set pushed into a corner of the living room.

          As I ascend the carpeted staircase, I murmur, "Kagome," and at hearing myself speak her hallowed name, I am pervaded by a boundless elation.

          "Kagome, soon we will be together, and you will have no need for that cad Inu-Yasha. I will cause you to forget everything about him, and you will only think of me, as I only think of you…"

          I crawl into my comfortable bed and slip away into a deep, dreamless void.

          The following morning, I awaken with a contented smile on my face. I sit up, yawning and stretching to welcome the new day. I look at the digital red numbers of my bedside clock and see that the morning bell at Kagome's high school will soon ring. In the blink of an eye, I am garbed in the somber boys' uniform the male students are required to wear.

          I know it will not do to go to school on foot and risk being late on my first day there. A motorbike materializes outside and I mount it, suddenly possessed of the knowledge of how to operate the machine. The engine revs and I zoom off through the woods, soon hitting the black asphalt of the street and speeding forward towards the tiny figure of Kagome riding her bicycle to school.

          When I catch up with her, I smile charmingly and lift a hand in greeting. Her brown eyes are wide for a moment, and she smiles hesitantly back, her cheeks tinted pale pink. I accelerate away, carrying that image of her with me until I arrive in front of her school. I park my bike and adjust a backpack on my shoulders that wasn't there before. All of this I do very methodically, waiting for Kagome to ride in on her bike, park it, and proceed inside so that I may follow her.

          The din in the corridors I know would be much worse if I still had my fox hearing. The fluorescent lights take a while to become acclimated to, but it is quite worth it for Kagome.

          I nearly lose sight of her in the crowded hallways, but I manage to maintain sight of her and enter her classroom a calculated number of seconds after she does. I approach the teacher and make eye contact, inserting the knowledge of my name and my status as a new student into her brain.

          The bell rings, and the teacher commands the class' attention.

          "Now I know you seniors are all excited about graduating in a week, but right now you are still students here and you must behave," she says. "I would like to introduce a new student to you, his name is Nanase Hojo."

          "Good morning," I greet them, though the only person whose eyes I catch is Kagome. "I'm Nanase Hojo. It's a pleasure to meet you."

          Several girls reply back with a bubbly "Hello, Nanase-san!" but I ignore them. I keep my eyes focused on Kagome until I pass her, and I know she is completely aware of it. I slide into the empty seat behind her and continue smiling at her lush, glossy raven hair.

          I do not have a chance to speak with Kagome until lunchtime, for in all our classes she is constantly surrounded by a group of friends or in close quarters with Inu-Yasha, whose disgusting odor I can't stomach even as a human with a laughably weak sense of smell.

          "Do you mind if I sit here?" I ask politely, standing across from her at a table in the cacophonous lunchroom.

          "No, not at all," she replies with a small, hesitant smile.

          "Thank you very much," I say, and take a seat. I eagerly dig in to my _azuki-meshi_, and notice that Kagome lunches on the same. I make comment of it and she tells me that it's her favorite food, and she seems pleased to find out that it is my favorite as well[3].

          For a while we sit in silence, and then Kagome speaks up, though I can feel wariness pouring off her in waves.

          "There is something about you, Nanase-san," she begins. "Something very familiar to me, so much so that it's nearly tangible, and yet I find myself unable to put my finger on it."

          "Please, you must call me Hojo. And it comes to me now that I have not learned your name yet, miss. You will bless me with this knowledge, won't you?" I question, raising my eyebrows.

          "Oh, of course, Hojo-san. My name is Higurashi Kagome," she says, and I express my thanks to her for gracing me with her name. She appears a little taken aback at my formality and graciousness, but I know it is nothing to concern myself with.

          "Hojo-san, please excuse my rudeness if you find it with me in saying so, but I have never encountered anyway who speaks as you do," Kagome remarks, sipping her bottled water.

          "Ah, so you have not become acquainted with yourself then, Kagome-san[4]?" I tease, cocking my head to the side.

          She flushes, and I laugh.

          "Kagome-san, this may sound forward and perhaps even disconcerting to you, but I must say it. I feel as though I've known you for many a year, and it is my fervent hope that you will choose to accept my offer of friendship despite the short time we have to spend together," I say when my laughter has died down.

          "Not at all disconcerting, Hojo-san," she returns. "I am much flattered that you would like to be friends with me after knowing me for such a short time."

          "Then you accept?"

          "Yes."

          "I am very pleased to hear that. There is just something about you that has caught my eye, Kagome-san."

          In our subsequent classes, the same situations that occurred prior to lunch present themselves again, that Kagome is deeply entrenched in a group of followers or occupied by conversation with Inu-Yasha.

          After the final bell rings, I go to my motorbike, climb on, and race off to my house in the woods, where I remain for about an hour before I make up my mind to go to Kagome's house and pretend not to have realized that we are neighbors, in a way.

          When I come forward through the maze of trees into Kagome's backyard, I see her there on the back porch. She is sitting on the steps, her head hanging down so that she does not see me.

          "Kagome-san? What a surprise!" I exclaim. "And yet it is very pleasant."

          She intakes her next breath sharply and jerks her head up, dropping it back down too late to hide from me the horridly familiar red eyes and cheeks. She scrubs at her face with balled fists, but when I kneel down in front of her and gently grasp her hands in mine, she knows her actions are to no avail.

          "Kagome-san, it pains me to see that you have been weeping. Pray tell, what is the wellspring of your sorrow? You need not feel embarrassed, nor need you agonize over whether or not you may trust me, for I assure you that I will never speak a word of anything that passes between us here," I tell her, squeezing her hands for emphasis. Though my visage purports absolute seriousness, inside I am screaming for joy that our flesh is in contact. Finally, _finally_, I am able to offer her consolation, as I have longed for!

          "The wellspring of my sorrow…" Kagome echoes. "Despite this sorrow, I am still able to be amazed at your eloquence, Hojo-san. Your beautiful speech touches me at the core."

          "I thank you for the compliment, Kagome-san, but you are skirting the issue. I do not hold it against you, but I don't believe it is healthy for an individual such as yourself to contain such unhappiness within you and never share the burden with another soul. Please, Kagome-san, _please_, tell me what your sadness is, and allow me to at least try to take it from you."

          For a long, precious moment, she stares me straight in the eyes, piercing my soul, and when finally she tears her gaze from mine, I know she has deemed me trustworthy, and my heart sings to know this.

          "For a long time, I was alone," she starts, and I listen, enraptured. "But then one day, I saw a little boy crying. His mother had just died, and his father had passed on before the little boy even had a chance to know him. So he, too, was all alone, just as I was. I saw the sadness and the loneliness in him that I had felt innumerable times within myself. In that moment, when I saw my reflection in his soul, I loved him. So I was a little girl, and I approached him, and promised that I would never go away from him. I vowed to always, _always_ be there for him when he needed me, and it is my way, and the way of my family, never to break a promise or go back on a word of honor[5].

          "Over the years, as we have grown and matured, I have stood silently by and watched every single thing that he has ever done, and all acts that have been wrongly committed against him, and all that has brought him either joy or sorrow. And whenever he has needed me, I have been there for him, because I knew that, without me, he would fall into a dark cavern of despair and never come out of it. He is meant to live in the light, and I knew I could not permit despair to overtake him thus. To do so would have been an inexcusable transgression.

          "What I have come to realize is that, as he grew older, he began to take me for granted, because he didn't really have need of me any longer. And now he is planning to go to college far away overseas, and he does not care at all that his decision hurts me. It has been almost unbearably painful, this horrible epiphany that, though it has been a number of years since he truly needed me, I—I—I—"

          She breaks out into those high-pitched whine-sobs again, and she is convulsing almost uncontrollably. I reach out and embrace her. I press her head to my chest and whisper sweet, soothing nothings to her.

          It is several minutes before she regains her poise, and those several minutes are utter ecstasy for me. Though I know it is terrible for me to find delight in her agony, my heart is not party to reason or rationality right now. I only know that my dream of embracing Kagome, of comforting her, has come true, and if I should die in the next second, I should die the happiest creature in the world.

          "Kagome-san, you are pained because you have realized that, though he doesn't need you, you have great need of him. Is that what you were going to say?" I inquire, pulling away from her though my body rails at me not to.

          She bites her lower lip and nods, shutting her eyes tightly to dam up the tears pleading for release.

          "Hojo-san, forgive me, I have been so emotional, and I do not wish for you to feel burdened by all of this. I—"

          "No, no, Kagome-san. I am more than glad to share this burden with you, for, as I said earlier, it pains me to see you in such pain. Kagome-san, this boy, whoever he is, does not deserve you. He is not at all worthy of your beauty, both outward and inward. Your heart is so big and you are so forgiving that you put even the most magnanimous of gods to shame. Perhaps you do not enjoy hearing this, but it is my belief, after having listened to your poignant story, that when boy goes away, you should forget him. I understand better than most how meaningful twelve years of one's life is, especially spent in such a way, and how difficult it is to cast that aside, but if he does not care, you should not hurt yourself by continuing to care," I advise, and she turns her head away from me. This simple action spears my heart, but I do not let it show.

          "I know that you are right. I _know_," she murmurs. "But for some strange reason, I cannot seem to let go."

          "Kagome-san, please, allow me to help you let go." I am trying to meet her eyes, but she will not turn to me. "Look at me, Kagome-san," I implore her, using my fingers to tilt her head upward so that I hold her gaze with mine.

          "I swear to you, Kagome-san, that I am not going anywhere, and that I am not going to leave you. You are no longer required to be a pillar of strength for someone, and I am telling you that _I_ will be _your_ pillar. You can rely on me no matter what, I promise."

          "Oh, Hojo-san—," she breathes, her smile so grateful that I can hardly restrain myself. I want her so desperately that my feelings threaten to tear me apart. My body is crying for me to envelop her entirely, and my heart is demanding her love with each beat, but I must somehow maintain control of the raging emotional firestorm inside me. I do not believe that she can love me after but one day, and so I must bide my time until such that she cares as deeply for me as I do for her.

          "Thank you, thank you ever so much, Hojo-san!" Kagome exclaims, throwing her arms around my neck. "May Inari-sama bless you and yours."

          'Inari-sama?' I think, aware of how uncommon it is for people of this day and age to worship the god of rice.

          "Hojo-san, I have to go now," Kagome tells me, and I know this is the signal for me to extract myself from this indescribably wonderful contact. I do so, and she smiles once again at me, and I feel my innards melting away into nothing.

          She disappears inside, and I step off the porch and into the forest, where I reclaim my fox form with ease and dash off to my house. I trot inside, up the stairs, and hop onto my bed. I curl into a ball, cushioning my head with my fluffy tail.

          The following three days pass by in a blur. Though during school hours the routine is much like it was my first day, after school Kagome and I are devoted to each other, though I know that I am more so to her than she is to me. But I do not allow this fact to bother me. Just to be with her is enough.

          On Saturday afternoon I go to Kagome's house, knowing how much she will need me because Inu-Yasha has just left this morning.

          When I arrive, she appears to have been waiting for me to get there, and it seems as though she has something of great import to tell me. I step up onto the porch and take her small, delicate hands in mine. She looks up into my eyes and begins talking.

          "Hojo-san, now that Inu-Yasha has left, I am no longer bound to him by the promise I made twelve years ago. As such, I am going to leave. Consequently, you are no longer bound to me by your promise," she says.

          "Kagome-san, I will follow you wherever you go, no matter what," I reply firmly.

          "There are some places that I cannot be followed to," she answers, her voice just a shadow of a whisper. She closes her eyes and I watch, completely in thrall, as her home dissolves, taking along all those living within its walls. I feel the cement under our feet disintegrate until we are standing on the grass.

          "Hojo-san, I will understand if you never forgive me. But I am done with this life, this painful human existence," she says, drawing away from me. I am frozen as I observe her black tresses whipping in a nonexistent wind and covering her whole body. Her form is shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller, and she goes down on all fours.

          "A black fox!" I exclaim in shock, blinking my widened eyes. She blinks back at me with those same brown eyes that she's always had.

          I think she is surprised when I smile warmly and say, "We are the same, you and I, little black fox. There is no place you go that I cannot follow you to."

          With that, I let slip away my human guise, and not even a second later I am standing right beside her, returned to my fox form.

          "H-Hojo!" she communicates to me. I smile a toothy, vulpine smile.

          "In my fox form, I am called Shippô," I inform her.

          "I am called Genko," she responds. "The black fox[6]."

          Together we run off into the forest, the black fox and I.

**—finis—**

[1]Inari is the Japanese god of rice, who is said to be served by some kitsune, particularly white foxes.

[2]According to some tales, a kitsune placing of a human skull atop its head is a necessary ritual for changing form and becoming humanoid.

[3]_Azuki-meshi_, rice boiled with red beans, is said to be a favorite food of foxes.

[4]Hojo/Shippô and Kagome/Genko speak rather magniloquently because, as kitsune, they have been alive for quite some time and so have speech reflecting the time period in which they were born, which should account for the odd phraseology.

[5]If a kitsune makes a promise or gives its word of honor, it is highly important that the promise is kept. Should a kitsune break a promise, it becomes self-destructive. Conversely, if a promise made to a kitsune is broken, the person that made the vow and subsequently broke it will have a deadly enemy.

[6]Black foxes, called _genko_ in Japan, are usually regarded as good omens.

Two webpages that were extremely helpful to me:

Foxtrot's Research on Kitsune Lore

http://www.comnet.ca/~foxtrot/kitsune/kitsune5.htm

Kitsune – Coyote in the Orient

http://cornwuff.kittyfox.net/fuzzylogic/kitsune.html

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_NOTES:_

I began writing this piece after reading an excellent book called The Fox Woman, by Kij Johnson. Written in 2000, it takes the old "fox-wife" folktales of Japan and expands on them to create a marvelous work of fiction that I would recommend to anybody interested in that sort of thing.

Anyway, being an avid Inu-Yasha fan and having a special place in my heart for Shippô-chan, I was totally inspired by Ms. Johnson's book and began working on this. I was also fueled by the similar shading of Shippô's fur and Hojo's hair, plus their devotion to Kagome. I just couldn't pass up the idea.

Yeah, so Inu-Yasha seemed like an ass, but don't you think he is sometimes? Though I do love the Inu-Yasha/Kagome pairing, I enjoy the notion of her being with others in the series, particularly Shippô; and for what reason, I do not know. I mean, geez, look at the age difference! It would make Kagome a cradle-robber! Ew, Kagome the pedophile… not at all appealing. Thus, my idea required an Alternate Universe setting.

Well, thank you very much for reading this; I hope you enjoyed it. I promise I'll try and work really hard on _Tsubasa_ and _I Want Tomorrow_ very soon.

Kei ^^V


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